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Launched in 2017 with an initial investment of over 500 million USD from the European Union, Spotlight Initiative is the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Impact Initiative to end violence against women and girls (EVAWG). Recognized as one of the 12 High-Impact Initiatives – driving progress across the sustainable development goals – Spotlight Initiative represents an unprecedented global effort to address violence against women and girls at scale.
During its first phase (2017- 2023), Spotlight Initiative helped cohere the UN system to implement 34 programmes across five regions. This included two civil society grant-making programmes – established in collaboration with the UN Trust to End Violence against Women and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund – which helped channel additional resources directly to civil society. By fostering a “One UN” approach under the leadership of the Resident Coordinators at the country level, Spotlight Initiative has leveraged various UN agencies’ complementary expertise, deepened collaboration, and streamlined operational processes, allowing for stronger programme delivery and better results for women and girls.
Through its deep partnerships at country and regional level – including with governments, civil society, faith-based and traditional leaders, academic institutions, media, the private sector, and others – Spotlight Initiative drove significant progress across response and prevention efforts. A strong commitment to meaningful engagement with civil society in particular, including local and grassroots organisations and feminist and women’s rights groups, has been central to the Initiative’s approach, as well. Under its first phase, nearly half of the Initiative’s activity funds were channeled directly to civil society, ensuring local ownership, buy-in, and sustainability of the Initiative's investments. At the global level, the Initiative forged a range of strategic partnerships, including with the Group of Friends, a coalition of 93 UN Member States advocating to end violence against women and girls, and the UN Foundation, which helped launch the WithHer Fund to channel more funding directly to local organizations.
Through its comprehensive approach – working to pass progressive laws and policies, strengthen institutions, deepen prevention programming, improve access to services, and generate data, and by centering partnerships – particularly with civil society – the Initiative has been shown to be 70% to 90% more effective at reducing the prevalence of violence against women and girls than siloed, single-pillar approaches. By aligning its interventions with national and local priorities, Spotlight Initiative works to deepen capacity, political will, and long-term commitment to ending violence against women and girls and advancing gender equality and women’s rights.
Unique to the Initiative is a whole-of-society approach that places ending violence against women and girls at the heart of national development priorities and gives local communities the tools they need to address violence in their specific context. The model works to support the development and revision of gender responsive laws and policies; strengthen institutions and data collection on VAWG; promote gender-equitable attitudes and positive social norms, and provide quality services for survivors of violence and their families. It does this work in partnerships with government and, critically, with civil society and women’s movements at every level, enhancing civic space and driving sustainable, transformative change.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
See gender-related resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly, Security Council and Human Rights Council, and relevant subsidiary bodies.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), guided by the mandate provided by General Assembly resolution 48/141, OHCHR represents the world’s commitment to the promotion, protection and realization of the full range of rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
OHCHR has a central role in safeguarding the integrity of the three pillars of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights and development. For 2024-2027, the Office has maintained its six thematic pillars on which its work stands, which are (1) Support to the United Nations human rights system; (2) Mainstreaming human rights within the United Nations other pillars, namely development and (3) peace and security; (4) Advancing the core human rights principles of non-discrimination, (5) accountability, (6) participation. OHCHR has identified six strategic directions, namely:
All areas have a strong focus on women’s human rights and gender issues, including in line with OHCHR internal policies on gender equality and the Secretary General System Wide Strategy on Gender Parity.
Institutionally, OHCHR is committed to strengthening the United Nations human rights programme and to providing it with the highest quality support, by working closely with its United Nations partners to ensure that human rights are at the center of the work of the United Nations.
For recent resources, visit: https://www.ohchr.org/en/women/gender-based-violence-against-women-and-girls
Palais Wilson. 52 rue des Pâquis. CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland
The mission of OHCHR is to work for the protection and promotion of all human rights for all people; to help empower people to realize their rights; and to assist those responsible for upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented. The Office carries out its mission with respect to gender-based violence within the overarching strategies to ensure country engagement, leadership, partnership, and support and strengthening of the Office and the human rights machinery.
OHCHR’s unique added value in addressing gender-based violence as a UN entity lies in its monitoring mandate, enabling it to identify trends, structural causes, and consequences through case investigations and public reporting. It plays a central role in the international human rights system by supporting UN human rights mechanisms (Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, and Universal Periodic Review) in developing recommendations and advocating for justice. With its human rights-based and survivor-centred approach, OHCHR promotes a holistic protection framework, ensuring victims’ access to services, gender-responsive accountability, and strengthened states’ capacities. OHCHR situates gender-based violence within broader gender inequalities and systemic discrimination, emphasizing the intersectionality of multiple forms of oppression that exacerbate violence and hinder access to justice. Its convening power facilitates global, regional, and national dialogues, fostering survivor participation and advancing substantive equality, prevention, and gender-transformative measures, including reparations.
OHCHR supports the Human Rights Council, UN investigative bodies, special procedures, and human rights treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
In 2024, the CEDAW Committee adopted its General recommendation No. 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, which highlights achieving 50:50 gender parity across all sectors as pivotal in addressing the root causes of gender-based violence.
OHCHR contributed to the elaboration of a global support system for the monitoring and reporting arrangements on sexual violence in conflict (MARA) with UN ACTION.
On 20 July 2018, CEDAW signed a framework of cooperation with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Under this framework of cooperation, CEDAW and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict seek to advance the rights of women and girls by combating conflict-related sexual violence and supporting the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security and CEDAW’s General Recommendation No.
In October 2018, CEDAW adopted revised reporting guidelines for States parties, which integrate SDGs with a view to ensuring systematic reporting by States parties and collection of data to be used in assessing progress made on the implementation of all SDG targets.On 22 November 2018 to commemorate the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women and which, inter alia, “called for strengthened cooperation between independent global and regional mechanisms, as common synergies and efforts to address violence against women under the existi
The OHCHR supported the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice (WGDAW) in sending communications on individual cases and legislation/policies which are not in compliance with international human rights law.
The OHCHR also supported the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice (WGDAW) in developing several conclusions aimed at supporting policy development in its thematic report on “Reasserting equality, countering rollbacks”, published in May 2018 (A/HRC/38/46). It concluded that the road to gender equality and the full realization of women’s and girls’ human right remains long and challenging.
The OHCHR supported the work of the SRVAW who presented two thematic reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly in 2018 on online violence against women and violence against women in politic.
During the period under review, the OHCHR supported the SRVAW in producing a number of legal and policy recommendations in communications sent to over 50 Member States and recommendations issued after country visits to: Canada (11 to 23 April 2018); Nepal (19 to 29 November 2018).
In November 2018, the SRVAW and the CEDAW Committee agreed on a Framework of Cooperation as a means of strengthening already established cooperation on combating violence against women in line with their respective mandates, and to advance the rights of women and girls by preventing and combating gender based violence, and supporting the implementation of the Convention and its General Recommendation 35.
In March 2018, CEDAW adopted General recommendation No. 37 (2018) on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change. The General Recommendation provides guidance to States parties on the implementation of their obligations under the Convention in relation to disaster risk reduction and climate change. The General recommendation recognises that women and girls also face a heightened risk of gender-based violence during and following disasters.
The OHCHR supported the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women during the first week of CSW63 in March 2019. In particular, support was provided for three side-events: